Dry hopping procedure--advice!

Hey all,

I've got my first ever IPA dry hopping right now and am looking for some advice on the next step. Because of some logistical issues I racked to a corny after 8 days and at the same time put in 1 oz of cascade in a mesh bag, zip tied to the top of the dip tube. My original plan was to just leave it like this for a week and then cool and carb it. my hope was that the hops would no longer be submerged after a gallon or so was pulled--thus avoiding any potential grassy flavors.

My dilemma is this: having actually done this, I'm pretty sure the mesh bag (pretty big) is going to remain submerged until the keg's at least half gone (which may take a month to happen). So my options are:

1) Leave it as is--hope that the grassy flavors will be slow to develop while it's at serving temp. As I mentioned though, it could be two months before the keg is finished

2) Attempt to remove the bag before I cool and carb. My worries here are 1) that I risk an infection (might have to actually put my hands in the beer while trying to get the bag out) and 2) that dropping the pressure (it's got about 12 pounds in the headspace now) will let a lot of the hop aroma escape

Any thoughts?

You could sanitize a coat hanger and fish it out instead of your hands. You could even flame it off if you wanted to be extra careful.

Have you considered drinking faster?

I have dry hopped in kegs a few times and I only got the grassy flavors after a month to month and a half plus. I didn't have mine tied to the dip tube so they were in the beer the whole time. I would say your method should be just fine without grassy flavors. Also depends on the hop variety.

I don't even bother tying the bag up high anymore. I just tie the bag shut and throw it in the bottom of the keg. The longest a keg dry hopped this way has lasted in my keezer is about 3.5 months, and neither myself nor any of my friends could detect any grassy flavors even in the last few pints. I do however only use whole leaf hops for dry hopping. I got some grassy and harsh flavors dry hopping with pellets a couple times back before I was set up for kegging. As mentioned above, some of it also depends on the hop variety. With only an ounce of hops, and a variety not known for grassy flavors, I wouldn't worry about it.